BOOK TWO: TRISTAN & DANIKA
Their love had the power of a runaway freight train, and the potential to be just as destructive.
The tempestuous sequel to Bad Things picks up where the first book left off. Reeling from a profound loss, Tristan and Danika struggle to pick up the pieces and build a life together, but the hard habits of a lifetime are not so easy to escape.
Rock Bottom takes us on a dual point of view journey through addiction and desire, through love and agony, and answers the question we’ve been asking since these characters were introduced in Grounded: “What happened between Tristan and Danika?”
DANIKA
Even love couldn’t cushion a fall like ours. My love for Tristan was so big that I felt consumed by it, and even so, it was not enough to overpower our combined demons.
I struggled. I yelled and screamed. I scratched and kicked.
I fought like hell, but even the most determined fighters have to stop before they break.
No one could say I didn’t fight for him.
“I love you,” I spoke softly into his ear.
He gripped me harder. “I can’t ever lose you, Danika. I’m not sure I’d survive it.”
“You’ve got me. And I’m not going anywhere. Not ever.”
I meant the words when I said them, but life had other plans for us.
I’d have given my life for that fight. In fact, I very nearly did.
TRISTAN
She was the one.
If I’d ever had a doubt, I didn’t now. She was the one I’d be thinking about, longing for, until I took my last breath. If I lost her tomorrow, I’d pine for her like a lovesick fool.
This was the kind of love that only hit you once in your life. This book is intended for readers 18 and up.
Kindle Edition, 273 pages
Published November 21st 2013
Source: Purchased
Genre: Erotica
I knew when I started getting the F-bomb texts from Courtney that this novel was going to be emotional...because usually it's ME that sends obscene texts!!! Yeah. Sigh, I think they started at 43%...so buckle up buttercup is my sound advice!
If you've read the Up in the Air trilogy you know that something went terribly terribly wrong between Danika and Tristan. This book finally ...FINALLY gives us the back story to their awful break up/break down/broken-fucked uppedness. The prologue warns us that this will be a sad tale and that was no lie. ACK! More information is available for me out there. I apologize to the R.K. Lilley gods that I have not finished that series. I have such good intentions (about pretty much everything) and haven't. Let me just say that fever is revived. James Cavendish is delish.
We begin the story with Danika and Tristan still reeling from Jared's death; they are both a mess but Tristan just cannot seem to get his shit together. He seeks solace in Danika, his friends, drugs and alcohol, the band...and nothing seems to alleviate the grief and pain that remains, except Danika...which we all know cannot be healthy. As their story progresses, Danika tries to soften the grief with love and sex and kindness and zero judgment. When Tristan's not around, she throws herself into work, dance, school, Frankie...she's determined to keep busy and work through her own sadness at losing Jared and watching Tristan self destruct. The bottom line with these two, though, is that as great as they are together they are in a place in their lives where they just seem to incessantly damage each other. From one major event to another, they are arguing, making up, sinking into their love bubble, and REPEAT but never really moving forward..and at some point even taking steps backwards. Co-dependent? Enabler/enablee? Unhealthy? You want them to work so much because they obviously love each other so much but sometimes ...is love enough to superglue the shards of a broken relationship back together again? We will have to wait to see since book 3 doesn't come out until early 2014.
Oh my gosh. Do they have the worst luck ever or what? But sadly, like you've explained...some of it isn't luck. It is seriously the free will of Tristan that keeps him sinking down into the black hole he finds himself in, and Danika just trying not to rock the boat and not talking to her support system (Bev & Jerry) and finding a resolution. They make some BIG damn decisions, and every time things seem to come together for them, they fall apart in such a big irreparable way. This story was absolutely beautiful in my opinion. It is dirty and sexy and what is it that Jamie McGuire says..."Not your mother's romance..." Yeah. It is definitely not that. I have seen relationships like theirs in action with friends in high school with the dysfunction and fights (Thank God no drugs) but it is real and it hurts and I think these two have to fix themselves before they can fix each other!
I loved the way R.K. Lilley approached the writing in this novel. The melancholy undercurrent set the perfect tone for the events as they unraveled. The sense that this novel is Danika and Tristan looking back at what a mess they made..the hindsight...makes it that much sadder. I hated that Danika always had to be so strong and yet had so much respect and admiration for refusing to let the bad define her. And, I hated that Tristan was so grief-stricken that he continually disappointed us (even still I completely loved him too!). These two went through so much together--R.K. Lilley definitely put them through the emotional ringer--and I cannot wait to see how she resolves their story!
You'll notice that there a few words that Danika says throughout her monologues that clearly foreshadow the future. That made me sad. But I still hoped through most of the novel that it might not be as bad and as soul crushing as it was rumored to be. It was. Don't be afraid though. This is by far one of my favorite series of this entire year, because do you know how much it made me feel reading it? A fucking lot. So fucking much. I waited hours until Shelley was done reading and writing her review to put my thoughts together. I've had some weird emotional crap going on and yesterday I cried while writing a review. Today...I was laying in my bed having finished this book...I laid my kindle down...I thought about it...and just cried. Cried a lot. Because this is serious real life shit. And as I have said probably way too much in this review, I loved every single second of it. Tristan still has my heart, and I hope that the final installment will maybe not "gut me like a fish" as I so eloquently was tweeting Ms. Lilley this morning!
We reviewed the first book in the series here so we hope that you will give these a try and be all sorts of masochistic with us.
Shelley: 5 Stars
Courtney: 5 Stars!
About the Author---
R.K. Lilley has been a writer since she can remember, but has held down some interesting jobs to pay the bills. For several years she was a first class flight attendant, and she always swore that she just had to write a book about it. Mixing her love of romance and all things BDSM, the Up In the Air Trilogy is her debut into the world of contempary romance and erotica. She is currently working on the final installment in the series.
You can contact R.K. at Authorrklilley@gmail.com
Visit her Facebook page to keep up-to-date on what she's working on
https://www.facebook.com/authorrklilley
And check out her website http://www.rklilley.com/
Or follow her on Twitter twitter.com/authorrklilley
R.K. also writes urban fantasy under the pseudonym: Rebecca K. Lilley
Purchase:
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I read this one a few weeks ago. I love when a book just effs with my head and heart, guts me, and leaves me in shattered pieces. RB did that.
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